Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Chapter 4: Paying with the Right Payment Options

In This Chapter

• Taking credit cards
• Obtaining a merchant account
• Setting up your gateway and payment processor
• Understanding the cost of providing convenience
• Offering payment options beyond credit cards
• Avoiding fraudulent charges and other online credit risks

One indisputable fact about running an online business is that you can't very well sell products over the Internet if you don't have a way to accept money from customers. There's really no way around it. You have a bevy of options, however.

One common solution is to accept credit cards, just as any brick-and-mortar store does. With credit and debit cards most commonly used for online shopping, customers expect to be able to pay this way. Fortunately, the acceptance and growth of e-commerce have simplified the process for online merchants. In less than a week, you can be ready to accept your first online credit card order.

Then again, not all customers have credit cards ready at their fingertips. Or perhaps they don't want to use credit cards online for security reasons. As an e-commerce merchant, you should provide those customers with an alternative payment solution.

In this chapter, we tell you about all the payment options available to your online business, and we show you how to start setting them up on your site.